Year: 2023

“Identification of individual king flowers within flower clusters is a critical step for developing a robotic apple pollination system. Typically, each cluster has five to six individual flowers, and the king flower can be occluded by the lateral flowers because of their central position in a flower cluster. King flowers share identical features (e.g., color, shape, and size) with other flowers. Apple flower clusters open sequentially from the king flower to the lateral flowers in the time of anthesis, which presents an opportunity for selective pollination. Therefore, it is critical to monitor the flower blooming stage for accurately determining the pollination targets and timing…”

Xinyang Mu, Long He, Paul Heinemann, James Schupp, and Manoj Karkee

Read more at Science Direct

January 26, 2023 Chat Transcript

Recording(s) here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajA3BBVyv1zc9xkiCSPqj3rEjW2vJ4Yb

Today’s Guests: Oli Hilbourne (Outfield); Jenny Lemieux (Vivid Machines); Karina Lau (AgerPix); Steve Mantle (Innov8); Mauricio Guerra Funes (Cornell University)

00:45:26 GK: Any use of drones for pest scouting?
00:45:53 BA: How big does fruiot have to be to detect in mm
00:46:35 BA: How small can you define a zone to 2′?
00:46:35 MJM: Is the drone useful for all training systems?
00:46:58 JC: Can the drones fly approx. 2m off the ground between rows to take sideview photos of the tree (for flower and fruitlet counts)
00:47:25 LS: How does your drone technology handle adverse weather conditions such as high winds and heavy rain?
00:49:12 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Hi Bruce. The fruit needs to be 40mm or about 1 inch in diameter to be picked up with the Outfield system. We can count from from 40mm right up to harvest.
00:50:46 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Hi Md Jebu. The drone works on trellis wall and super spindle growing systems. This year we will be demonstrating the system on V trellis and V4 systems.
00:53:11 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Hi John. We typically fly around 10-12m above the ground to survey the crops. We are always looking at higher resolution cameras, as as those become more common hopefully we will be able to pick up fruit earlier and earlier, right up to fruitlet counting. At the moment its only blossom cluster mapping and fruit counting from 40mm diameter and larger.
00:55:05 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Hi Lina. The drone works well in all lighting conditions, and being based in the UK we have plenty of examples of rainy conditions to train on! The drones don’t fly in the rain, and you shouldn’t fly in winds of 20 mph or more.
00:55:34 LS: Reacted to “Hi Lina. The drone w…” with 👍
00:56:49 JC: Jenny – what is the smallest fruit size your camera can measure?
00:57:17 RM: Do you have grower in Quebec
00:58:51 MJM: Hi Jenny, how about the price of the camera?
00:59:13 RF: Jenny- Have you started work on canopy density
01:03:39 Jenny Lemieux | Vivid Machines: Hi MJM – we lease the sensor for $5k/yr, and charge $60/acre for the predictions and services.
01:04:44 Jenny Lemieux | Vivid Machines: Hi Rod – we haven’t built a model yet for canopy density, mostly because we need to determine how to define it (per block, or variety, per farm.. ). but we have the data needed and it’s on the list! We just need help with thinking through what to present.
01:08:15 SB: How many dendrometers have been deployed in one orchard to get accurate growth curves? Or is there a recommendation of number of units per acre?
01:09:54 SB: Replying to “How many dendrometer…” answer: 6 units/hectare
01:11:10 LCF: Replying to “How many dendrometer…” Always depends on the species, the age, etc. One antenna covers around 50 Has.
01:24:43 RM: hi Jenny I assume that we must drive each sides of the row to have accurate data. What is the max speed of the 4 Wheel to obtain good results
01:26:04 IL: Hi Robert, yes driving both sides of the row is key to obtain a holistic view of your block. The Green Atlas cartographer can be driven at speeds of 25mph
01:26:29 AAK: Hi
01:28:30 Jenny Lemieux | Vivid Machines: hi Jenny I assume that we must drive each sides of the row to have accurate data. What is the max speed of the 4 Wheel to obtain good results Hi RM – no, just one side. One of the algorithms in our pipeline deals with occlusion so that we can predict from the one side.
Max speed is 10 km/hr, though on 3 and 4 leaf trees, a little slower, 5-7km is currently working better (though I expect we’ll solve that before April)
01:35:38 HGT: Does any of the speakers do the imaging/dat collection by aerial application?
01:38:20 Steve Mantle: HGT – partnerships roadmapped for innov8 – satellite (planet), flyover, drone (perhaps with some of the PACMAN presenters). Our belief is none of these systems are a one size fits all; and each of these methodologies (including handheld data capture) have a place to complement depending on extent of variability and need to scale.
01:39:03 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Hi HGT. Outfield uses drones to gather imagery data, we use that to create blossom loading maps, fruit counts and yield estimates. We use off the shelf consumer drones that growers can fly on demand. I was the first speaker on today’s call, I think there will be a video available later but I’m happy to follow up directly if you like.
01:40:42 HGT: my apology: clarification I am thinking fixed wing aircraft, helicopter or satellite. , not drones.
01:41:12 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Ah, no problem!
01:43:08 SB: Accuracy
01:43:22 AKL: On point
01:43:35 RK: total cost of ownership needs to be added
01:43:41 JMR: Results delivered in a timely manner
01:43:57 SB: Durability (could be considered ease of use)
01:44:00 SB: I think how the various technologies integrate with the others (new or existing ones) is important
01:44:26 JL: Net profit results
01:44:40 KB: what info we can gather – precision thinning vs final yields
01:45:47 SB: everybody is working on adding new tools, but each living in its own space, with no common/shared way of communicating with other tools or existing dataset
01:46:49 SB: yes
01:46:56 Steve Mantle: SB – PRECISELY. That’s our focus – bringing together data siloes (selectively, without it being too crazy!)
01:47:24 HGT: cost benefit analysis
01:47:45 SB: Units of cost is also important like is it per user, per acre, per year, etc.
01:47:46 Karen Lewis: Reacted to “everybody is working…” with 👍🏻
01:48:31 Steve Mantle: API availability for data flow is critical.
01:48:32 SB: Steve, I have a feeling no one company can solve this issue, but there should be an effort among tech companies to define a common ground, some standards
01:48:32 HGT: again: cost benefit analysis
01:48:55 HGT: it is all about DATA and their benefit
01:49:15 JL: Different for each
01:49:15 SB: mmmmm….maybe 100-500
01:49:17 Steve Mantle: SB – 100% agree. Getting us all oaring the right direction and aligning on common items like task maps are key.
01:50:20 RK: based on only 1 factor, is not too helpful for me.I want to see the overall picture. Chemical savings, environmental benefits…..
01:50:39 HGT: yes
01:50:44 SB: yes
01:50:54 JL: Yes
01:50:56 MJM: yes
01:50:59 AAK Dyes
01:51:06 ADR: turn on and receive data
01:51:14 DVW: Yes
01:51:26 JMR: Reacted to “turn on and receive …” with 👍
01:51:28 RK: Turn on and receive data if I can massage raw data for my use.
01:52:56 JL: Thanks for these sessions. Very enlightening!
01:53:49 Steve Mantle: Hats off to the organizing team for this series, and the tons of work you’re doing behind the scenes.
01:53:53 Craig Kahlke: Past PACMAN Meetups (Jan 12., 19, and today’s in the coming days):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajA3BBVyv1zc9xkiCSPqj3rEjW2vJ4Yb
01:54:17 Oli Hilbourne | Outfield: Thank you very much to the organising team for putting this all together, and thank you for the invite to speak today!
01:54:37 Craig Kahlke: W NY Fruit Conference – “State of the Industry” Feb 27-8 Rochester, NY
https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=1729
01:55:04 AKL: thank you PACMAN Extension team
01:55:15 Anna Wallis: Link to the PACMAN website for additional project updates: https://pacman.extension.org/
01:55:19 Jenny Lemieux | Vivid Machines: Thanks everyone!
01:55:26 Karen Lewis: https://www.innov8.ag/smartorchard
01:55:27 GS: thx!!
01:55:29 SB: will you have web connection for the conference?
01:55:39 ADR: thanks!
01:55:45 Steve Mantle: Yes – would love to engage more providers in smart orchard 🙂
01:55:58 RK: thank you all
01:56:03 MG: Thank you !
01:56:49 SB: is there a newsletter for the PACMAN project?
01:56:56 Steve Mantle: Where do we subscribe to the quarterly?
01:57:13 Karen Lewis: Replying to “is there a newslette…” Pacman website – no newsletter
01:57:33 Jon Clements: No newsletter, website pacman.extension.org has blog/post updates
01:57:51 Anna Wallis: https://nyshs.org/fruit-quarterly/
01:57:51 SB: Reacted to “No newsletter, websi…” with 👍🏻
01:58:03 Steve Mantle: Reacted to “https://nyshs.org/fr…” with 😁
01:58:15 SB: thanks!
01:59:26 Steve Mantle: Turning around the links of recordings in 24 hours is awesome; thank you!
01:59:49 AAK Thankfully

January 19, 2023 Chat Transcript

Recording(s) here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajA3BBVyv1zc9xkiCSPqj3rEjW2vJ4Yb

Today’s Guests: Dave Brown and Patrick Plonski (Pometa); Chris Hall and Matt King (FruitScout); Ross Kranz and Tim Cromwell (LaGasse, Aurea, Munckhof); Charlie Wu (Orchard Robotics)

00:31:00 Anna Wallis: pacman.extension.org
00:31:36 Anna Wallis: https://nyshs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/NYFQ-BOOK-Summer-2022_PRINT.pdf
00:42:09 Craig Kahlke: Please use the chatbox for questions folks.
00:42:48 GP: So, you’re confident you’re not double counting fruits like opposite row on “V” trellis with 3D image.
00:43:40 Patrick Plonski: Hi GP, Yes we are quite confident in this. We can reconstruct which side of the row any individual fruit is growing on. E.g. which arm of the V trellis.
00:44:23 JCL: Are the light conditions in the orchard import for taking video and achieving accurate fruit size measurements.
00:45:42 JC: Could you briefly touch on bin scanning? Like to you use a iPhone with video to scan bins or take an image. Does it get size and color data?
00:46:15 Greg Peck: How will fruit number be reported? Per linear length of row, per tree, per TCSA, per acre, etc.?
00:46:17 Put your name please!: Is there a way to apply a treatment to trees that would enhance buds and make identifying buds a doable
00:47:16 Anna Wallis: Anonymous question: Can you disclose the average percentage of occluded fruit?
00:47:49 MK: How many trees/feet do you need to count for ground truthing?
00:48:22 Put your name please!: Is there an auto-weight calculation based on drop estimates (tonnage)? Any accuracy data therefrom?
00:48:54 JCL Does your output include fruit per tree or fruit per linear foot?
00:48:57 Jon Clements: Greg Peck, Pometa tells me they are going to be focusing on a per tree count going forward, TBD?
00:52:54 Greg Peck: Reacted to “Greg Peck, Pometa te…” with 👍
00:57:00 RB: Can you say if the higher the density of the canopy, the more you overestimate the crop?
01:04:53 Patrick Plonski: Hi JC, Regarding bin scanning, Pometa will be implementing two bin scanning procedures, both using video from the phone. Customers will be able to scan a bin in the field using a phone in much the same manner they can scan a set of trees. We are also testing out overhead scanning so that the packing house can scan the top of the truck as it comes in with a fixed overhead phone.
01:06:09 JC: I’m assuming a iPad Pro would work as well?
01:10:37 BB: How accurate are the trunk diameter measurements with FruitScout, and how robust is it at dealing with interference from ground covers (weeds), root suckers, etc.
01:11:49 Chris Hall: Hi JC. Yes, modern iPad pro cameras would be sufficient, though you may find a phone (iPhone or Android) may be easier to manage just from a size perspective.
01:12:43 Chris Hall: Hi BB, we have found trunk and fruit measurements to be very accurate. Ground truthing done by us and academic and research partners has shown less than 2% variance
01:16:29 SS: For Matt King: HI, could you please repeat how your fruit sizing technology is linked to DAS, I did not get it, thanks
01:19:26 Matt King: Sure. For DAS customers in WA, you can just take sizing pictures with FruitScout, and then we automatically feed that data into DAS and you can see the harvest projections in DAS. For customers outside WA, we integrate with any weather stations, and implement the exact same harvest prediction model. You can see the results in the FruitScout PCLM Control Panel.
01:29:18 Put your name please!: How much cost the root pruner
01:29:26 BB: are they currently selling the VR fertilizer spreaders?
01:34:52 SB: As far as I know there is no automatic integration of FruitScout with DAS. Matt King can you please clarify that?
01:39:26 Matt King: Hey SB. Looks like you are on the emails from last year when we first built the integration with DAS.
01:43:10 BA: Any issues with time of day scan was made
01:45:01 SB2: Can you explain what form the grower receives the data (i.e. excel?)
01:46:03 SS: Hi Charlie, can we use your technology without a vehicle? Like manually? do you have a protocol in place for this options or not possible?
01:47:55 SB: Hey Matt, yes, but I’m still not sure what you mean with integration with DAS. As of today, DAS does not interface directly/automatically with FruitScout, nor vice versa
01:48:31 SS: thanks!
01:51:29 Matt King: SB, I’ll have to beg to differ, as the integration was built, demonstrated last year and exists. But, we can discuss this further offline.
01:51:45 Dave Brown: Thanks Anna!

January 12, 2023 Chat Transcript

Recording(s) here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajA3BBVyv1zc9xkiCSPqj3rEjW2vJ4Yb

Today’s guests: Terence Robinson, Jon Clements. Brent Arnoldussen, and Todd Einhorn

00:40:41 Anna Wallis: Welcome! If you have questions please put them in the chat. We’ll try to answer a few after each speaker, and then have more discussion at the end.
01:13:20 JM: For a severely biennial bearing HC block, is 150-200 percent still best?
01:13:29 JM: for pruning*
01:13:55 SB: What’s the plan to provide the model to WA growers?
01:14:03 JP: how do you measure carbohydrates?
01:15:17 Jon Clements: Honeycrisp is a bit of a bugaboo with that biennial bearing, really should cut dormant buds to see how many are floral to adjust pruning level…
01:16:45 Jon Clements: Carbohydrate model to WA? I presume through your AgWeatherNet?
01:17:55 Jon Clements: Carbohydrate production/depletion is a function of sunlight and temperature; and tree growth stage. Make sense?
01:20:55 SB: Are there thoughts about how climate factors such as relative humidity, wind, use of frost protection, etc, may impact the robustness of the pollen tube growth model?
01:24:58 Terence Robinson: To JM, Yes for severely biennial bearing blocks it is critical to reduce flower bud number in the “on” year to no more than 200% of the target fruit number. This is because excessive fruitlets in the first 4 weeks after bloom produce GA hormone which is the anti-flowering hormone and will ensure no flowers the next year. If however, the floral bud load is reduced to no more than 200% and you couple that with bloom thinning then the number of fruitlets can be lowered rapidly to a reasonable number which will not result in high internal GA levels and biennial bearing.
01:26:21 Terence Robinson: To SB. We plan to work with the manager of the WA weather network and Lee Kalcsits to get the model installed in WA in 2023.
01:26:45 Jon Clements: Terence and JM, so yes, and the real goal is to reduce biennial bearing tendency?
01:28:11 Terence Robinson: To JP, We do not measure carbohydrates in the trees but the model is based on experimental data where we measured photosynthesis and respiration to estimate carbohydrate production and use. The model uses temp and sunlight to grow a virtual tree and estimate internal carbohydrate status.
01:46:06 Anna Wallis: https://ag.umass.edu/fruit/fact-sheets/hrt-recipe-predicting-fruit-set-using-fruitlet-growth-rate-model
01:47:36 RC: So if I have 200 acre orchard, 100 honey, 100 gala. You are saying look only at one 10acre block and it will work for the other 90 acres?
01:49:25 Anna Wallis: https://pacman.extension.org/
01:51:40 Terence Robinson: To RC, I am not sure I understand the question. We suggest you evaluate each block an variety in your orchard not just one 10 acre block. However, as we develop digital ways to count and map orchards, I hope we can evaluate every tree in the 100 acre orchard and develop a management plan for each tree that could be communicated to workers or smart sprayers.
01:52:14 JM: RC I wouldn’t do that. Unless all your blocks are just like each other!
01:52:31 Jon Clements: RC, no, in the ideal world it would be one set of measured trees per variety per block; too onerous, right? So you are probably looking at one of the more robust options that will be discussed in following weeks…
01:54:03 RC: That’s what I thought. Just confirming. Different terminology use of “Block vs. Orchard”.
01:54:49 RC: I appreciate the comments!
02:05:10 SB: Would the carbohydrate model or Fruit set model help us understand the degree of natural “june drop” that occurs or when it would happen? Has anyone looked at “June drop” in more detail to know how growers can anticipate it better? Maybe more of WA issue than NY with higher density orchards and dwarfing rootstocks?
02:06:03 JM: Todd Einhorn that’s really exciting work!
02:07:13 Jon Clements: 👍
02:08:44 Anna Wallis: https://wsu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5aqy5G45R2jCYnQ
02:09:29 SB: Thank you Terence, that help a lot!
02:10:43 ADR: Is June drop a delayed effect of chemical thinners already applied to the block or is it a lack of fruit set?
02:12:38 Anna Wallis: Here’s the PACMAN website again for updates on this project: https://pacman.extension.org/
02:12:40 CS: does June drop also have to do with any frost damage that might have occurred? i.e. burned leaves

A YouTube playlist of all the PACMAN Briefings held January 12, 19, and 26, 2023 is available here! Note that individual presentations can be selected and watched at your convenience.

As of 5-January, 2023

2023 PACMAN Briefing Agenda

Thursdays 12PM EST / 9AM PST, via Zoom, pre-registration required here http://bit.ly/3B14LS7

Show and tell progress towards Precision Apple Crop load MANagement

JAN 12 – How can PACMAN help you make more money?

Led by Jon Clements and Terence Robinson

Terence Robinson – Updates on horticultural work, Flow chart for Precision Crop Load Management

Jon Clements – RECIPE – Predicting fruit set using the fruitlet growth rate model apps (Malusim and Fruit Growth)

Todd Einhorn – Fruit Growth Model (new method)

Brent Arnoldussen – Pollen Tube Growth Model

YouTube playlist of above presentations
(individual presentations can be selected) here!

JAN 19 – Innovative new technology to implement PACMAN (Part 1)

Led by Anna Wallis and Craig Kahlke

Pometa – Dave Brown and Patrick Plonski

Fruit Scout – Chris Hall and Matt King

LaGasse/Aurea/Munckhof – Ross Kranz and Tim Cromwell

Orchard Robotics – Charlie Wu

YouTube playlist of above presentations
(individual presentations can be selected) here!

JAN 26 – Innovative new technology to implement PACMAN (Part 2) & How’s your adoption going?

Led by Mario Miranda Sazo, Craig Kahlke. and Mauricio Guerra Funes

Innov8 – Steve Mantle

Outfield – Oli Highbourne and Andrew Schmack

AgerPix – Karina Lau

Vivid Machines – Jenny Lemieux

Mauricio Guerra Funes – How’s your adoption going?

YouTube playlist of above presentations
(individual presentations can be selected) here!